Koluama’s angry ocean

The ocean is angry in two Ijaw communities, Koluama I and II in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State. For this, the communities are on the dge. The youths have cried out over gradual disappearance of their homes.

A surge from the Atlantic Ocean has been swallowing the communities in piecemeal and forcing many residents to flee their ancestral homes.

In June last year, it was reported that the tidal current of the sea rose, overflew its bank and emptied into the Koluama River.

Residents of the communities raised the alarm that they were exposed to the direct attack of waves and tidal currents from the sea.

Shortly after the incident, panic-stricken traditional rulers of the communities rushed to Yenagoa, the state capital, lamenting threats by the sea to wash away the communities.

They traced their woes to the activities of oil companies operating in the area particularly the Koluama-Chevron gas explosion and fire outbreak that occurred in the area in January 16, 2012.

They complained that the explosion which emanated from the gas drilling rig, K.S. Endevour, owned by Chevron Nigeria Limited caused earth tremors and vibrations in the communities.

“Several houses suffered in the communities. They suffered cracks in their walls and foundations,” they said.

The traditional rulers who were accompanied to Yenagoa by youths from the communities recalled that they had earlier warned that if remedial measures were not taken on time, their communities would sink in no time.

It was learnt that because no action had been taken by the Federal Government to address the concerns of the communities, the water level had continued to rise against Koluama.

Youths under the aegis of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide on Sunday called on the Federal Government to direct the Federal Ministry of Environment to take urgent steps to avert the impending humanitarian and environmental disaster at Koluama communities.

The IYC, in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, said the sea would totally swallow the communities if the government failed to identify the real cause of the surge and nip it in the bud.

“These communities especially Koluama 2 is at the risk of being overtaken by the ocean which has taken a substantial part of the land on which the community is situated and if urgent steps are not taken the entire Koluama 2 Community may not exist in the nearest future.

“This is an impending humanitarian and environmental disaster which can be averted if urgent proactive steps are taken”, he said.

He noted that the situation in Koluama had been worsened by decades of oil exploration and exploitation by Chevron.

He accused the company of not providing commensurate corporate social responsibility to ameliorate the environmental hazards suffered by the community.

“Chevron’s wilful refusal to pay compensation for damages arising from the 2012 gas explosion coupled with the abject poverty in the community speaks volume of the level of abandonment”, he said.

He added: “The IYC is appalled by the insensitivity of the federal Ministry of Environment to the situation being faced by the Koluama Communities despite the fact that the IYC had drawn the Ministry’s attention to the situation in June 2014.

“To the IYC, the Koluama issue just like the other environmental crisis in the Niger Delta is a personal challenge to President Jonathan who is an environmentalist and very familiar with the problem, hence we call on him to act now and save the Koluama communities from extinction.”